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car insurance

One of the main things I’m trying to do at the moment is save some money. We currently don’t have a great emergency fund, and that’s something I really want to change. One big thing that came up this past month was the car insurance renewal, and I decided it was time to shop around to see if I could find something cheaper. The only problem was that changing looked like it was going to mean paying a deposit upfront, and we really don’t have that kind of money lying around now. Luckily, my wife – always the brains of the operation! – suggested seeing if we could find some very cheap car insurance with no deposit. It means paying slightly more per month, but avoiding that initial fee meant we could put a nice couple of hundred in the savings account for future use. I’m thinking of having a look at our energy bills next.

Other than that, it’s mostly been a case of cutting unnecessary expenses where we can – I’ve started taking a packed lunch into work with me, and my wife has just bought a cafetière in an attempt to stop buying Starbucks! We’ve also changed our daughter’s car insurance plan – it was a bit trickier to find something with no deposit, but after some juggling around, we think we’ve got something that works out. We also took the opportunity to involve her in the shopping process (again, on my wife’s suggestion). It’s easy to forget that these things aren’t taught in schools, so I went through all the pros and cons of the different plans with her, and how to work out the best option. I want to avoid making too big a deal out of our attempts to save money so we don’t worry her, but I figure showing her how to get the best deal is useful.

So that’s been our big saving of the month – we’re starting to keep an expenses sheet (color coded!) to work out what we might be able to lower or get rid of next month. I’ve already got a couple of ideas of what to be on the lookout for, but it’ll be interesting to keep an eye on the things we don’t expect.